How to prepare for an eCommerce platform migration

Preparing your online store for migration is one of the most important stages of any platform switch. A well-planned migration can improve performance, increase flexibility, simplify integrations, and make day-to-day eCommerce management easier. At the same time, it is not a process you should start without a clear plan.

Without proper preparation, it is easy to lose data, create order-processing issues, damage SEO, break integrations, or cause sales downtime. That is why online store migration should start long before products, customers, and orders are actually moved to a new platform.

The key steps include a detailed pre-migration eCommerce analysis, creating a full backup, and checking the technical requirements for PrestaShop to make sure the new store will be stable, secure, and ready for growth.

In this article, we explain what to check before switching platforms, how to plan the migration process, and why proper preparation helps avoid many costly problems.

Why prepare your store for migration?

Most platform migration projects start with a specific business problem. The current store may be too slow, difficult to develop, expensive to maintain, or limited when it comes to integrations with ERP, PIM, WMS, OMS, marketplaces, or payment systems.

Sometimes a company wants to enter new markets, launch B2B sales, or simply build a more stable foundation for further eCommerce growth.

In these situations, migrating your store can be a very good decision, but only if the process is properly planned.

Preparing your online store for migration helps define what should be moved, what should be cleaned up, and what should not be copied to the new platform. This is important because migration should not mean transferring all the old problems into a new store.

Without a proper analysis, it is easy to carry over:

• outdated product data,
• incorrect URLs,
• unnecessary modules,
• poorly designed category structures,
• integrations that have needed improvement for a long time,
• processes that make day-to-day sales operations more difficult.

A well-prepared store migration helps you:

• reduce the risk of data loss,
• limit sales downtime,
• plan the budget and timeline more accurately,
• protect SEO visibility,
• detect technical issues before launch,
• adapt the new platform to real business needs.

Store migration is also a good moment to look at the entire online sales ecosystem, not just the store itself. This includes data, integrations, logistics, payments, analytics, SEO, and everyday order management.

Companies that treat migration only as “copying the store over” often discover after launch that the new platform has the same problems as the old one, just in a different package.

Pre-migration eCommerce analysis: what should you check?

A pre-migration eCommerce analysis is one of the most important stages of the entire process. This is when you need to understand how the current store works, where its limitations are, and what the business expects from the new platform.

It is not just about preparing a list of products to move. A proper pre-migration analysis should cover the whole store and the processes that affect sales, customer service, and the day-to-day work of your team.

Product data and category structure

How many products are currently in the store? Do they have variants, attributes, images, descriptions, downloadable files, or relationships with other products? Is the data complete, up to date, and well organised?

Incomplete product data is one of the most common issues discovered during migration. It is better to identify it early, because fixing product data in the middle of the project can extend the timeline and increase costs.

It is also worth reviewing the current category and subcategory structure. Is it logical? Does it help users find products easily? Should it be moved to the new store as it is, or does it need to be redesigned?

Migration is often a good moment to rebuild the category tree, especially if the store has grown organically over the years and the structure has become inconsistent.

Customer data, orders, and SEO

You also need to define which customer and order data should be migrated. This includes purchase history, order statuses, invoices, returns, complaints, and any data needed for after-sales support.

One important point: customer passwords usually cannot be transferred between platforms in a straightforward way. They are stored in an encrypted form that cannot be read. After migration, customers may need to set a new password, so it is worth planning communication around this in advance.

SEO is one of the highest-risk areas when switching platforms. Before migration, you should review URLs, meta titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal linking, and the visibility of the most important pages in Google.

If URLs change after migration, and they often do, 301 redirects are essential. Without them, Google may no longer connect the old addresses with the new pages, which can lead to a drop in organic visibility.

Exporting URLs from the current store, for example using Screaming Frog or data from Google Search Console, should be one of the first steps in your pre-migration eCommerce analysis.

Integrations and pre-migration checklist

In many stores, integrations are the most sensitive part of the entire system. Before migration, you need to review connections with:

• ERP,
• PIM,
• WMS,
• OMS,
• BaseLinker,
• marketplaces,
• courier systems,
• payment providers,
• invoicing systems,
• marketing automation tools.

Not every integration available for the current platform will have a ready-made equivalent for PrestaShop. In some cases, you may need to implement a new module or build a custom connector.

Before migration, it is worth checking:

• product data: variants, attributes, images, descriptions, and files,
• category and subcategory structure,
• customer data and order history,
• URLs and SEO data,
• integrations with external systems,
• modules and additional features,
• checkout, payments, and delivery methods,
• analytics and tracking tools,
• hosting and performance,
• business requirements after migration.

A good pre-migration eCommerce analysis helps define what should be moved as is, what needs to be improved, and what should be redesigned from scratch.

Sometimes migration is the best opportunity to simplify the store architecture and remove solutions that generate costs but no longer bring real value.

Backup before migration: how to do it properly

A backup before migration is an essential safety measure. Without it, any major change to your store becomes risky.

A backup allows you to restore data if something goes wrong during migration, whether the issue affects the database, files, configuration, or integrations.

A proper pre-migration backup should include much more than just products. An online store is made up of many elements that are critical for sales, customer service, and day-to-day operations.

Before migration, make sure you secure:

• the store database,
• products, descriptions, variants, attributes, and prices,
• product images and media files,
• customer data and order history,
• order statuses, invoices, and sales documents,
• payment and delivery settings,
• module configuration and theme files,
• discount rules and coupons,
• URLs and SEO data,
• server configuration files,
• integration documentation and API access data.

Creating a backup before migration is not enough. You also need to check whether it can actually be restored.

This is a common mistake: a company has a backup file, but no one has tested whether the store can really be recovered from it. A good practice is to restore the backup in a test environment and verify that the store works correctly.

This way, you know that the backup is usable and that you can return to the previous state if anything goes wrong.

A backup should be created not only at the beginning of the migration process, but also right before the final switch. This reduces the risk of losing new orders, customer data, or changes made between testing and the launch of the new platform.

It is also worth planning redundancy. Keeping the backup only on the same server as the store is too risky. Ideally, your backup should be stored in at least two locations, for example on the server and in the cloud.

If the server fails during migration, your data must still be available from another source.

PrestaShop technical requirements: what should you check?

If PrestaShop is your new platform, you need to make sure the technical environment is properly prepared.

PrestaShop technical requirements depend on the version you choose, so before starting the project, you should verify the current requirements and check whether your hosting, modules, and integrations are compatible.

Basic technical configuration

PrestaShop technical requirements include, among others:

• the right PHP version, compatible with the selected PrestaShop version,
• an up-to-date and compatible MySQL or MariaDB version,
• a web server such as Apache or Nginx,
• an active SSL certificate,
• cron jobs for process automation,
• appropriate PHP limits, including memory_limit and upload_max_filesize,
• required PHP extensions,
• proper cache configuration,
• a test environment where the store can be safely verified before launch.

Hosting, performance, and integrations

Before migration, check whether your hosting is ready for the planned number of products, orders, and users. A store that works well with low traffic may struggle under heavier load, especially if it has many integrations or a large product catalogue.

For stores with tens of thousands of SKUs, intensive B2B traffic, or frequent synchronisations, a VPS or dedicated server is often a better choice than shared hosting.

PrestaShop technical requirements are not only about server parameters. You also need to check whether the new platform will be ready to support real business processes.

This means verifying whether integrations with ERP, PIM, WMS, OMS, marketplaces, payment systems, and courier services will work reliably after migration.

Modules and test environment

Module compatibility is another important area to check. Not every module used in the old store will have a compatible equivalent for the new PrestaShop version. In some cases, it may be better to implement a new module or build a custom integration.

Before migration, you should also prepare a test environment, also known as staging. The new store should be configured and tested outside the production environment. This is where you can safely test data imports, integrations, payments, delivery methods, the checkout process, and performance.

Well-verified PrestaShop technical requirements reduce the risk of launching a store that starts showing problems after just a few days, such as payment errors, warehouse integration issues, slow loading times, or back-office errors.

Step by step: how to migrate an online store

An online store migration should be carried out in stages. This makes it easier to manage risks, test data, and fix errors before the new platform is made available to customers.

Planning and preparing the environment

Step 1: Define the goal of the migration

First, you need to clearly define why the company is switching platforms. Is the goal better performance, stronger SEO, B2B sales, integrations, international expansion, process automation, or easier store management?

Without a clear goal, it is difficult to make the right technical and project decisions.

Step 2: Analyze the current store

This is the moment for a detailed pre-migration eCommerce analysis. You need to review data, integrations, category structure, the purchasing process, SEO visibility, modules, payments, delivery methods, and analytics.

The more detailed the analysis, the fewer surprises you will face during the actual migration.

Step 3: Prepare the migration plan

The plan should define the scope of work, timeline, responsibilities, risks, and testing process.

It is also worth deciding early when the backup will be created and when the final switch to the new platform will take place.

A good plan should include a maintenance window, ideally at a time when store traffic is as low as possible.

Step 4: Prepare the technical environment

The new store should be built in a test or staging environment. This is where you should check the server configuration, PrestaShop technical requirements, modules, integrations, and data import.

The staging environment should reflect the production environment as closely as possible, including the same PHP settings, the same database version, and a similar integration setup.

Backup, data, and integrations

Step 5: Create a backup

The backup should include files, the database, images, configuration, SEO data, orders, customers, and everything needed to restore the store.

The pre-migration backup should be stored in more than one location and tested to make sure it can actually be restored.

Step 6: Run a test data migration

The first migration should take place outside the production environment. This allows you to check whether products, variants, prices, images, customers, and orders have been moved correctly.

This is often the stage where data inconsistencies become visible. It is much better to discover them here than after the production launch.

Step 7: Configure and test integrations

You need to test connections with external systems, especially ERP, PIM, WMS, OMS, BaseLinker, marketplaces, payment providers, courier services, and invoicing systems.

Integrations should be tested end to end: from placing an order in the store to seeing it appear in the warehouse or invoicing system.

SEO, checkout testing, and launch

Step 8: Check SEO and redirects

If URLs are changing, you need to prepare 301 redirects. It is also worth reviewing metadata, headings, internal linking, indexation, and the most important pages that generate traffic from Google.

After the new store is launched, Google Search Console should be monitored closely to quickly detect indexation issues, redirect problems, or a growing number of 404 errors.

Step 9: Test the purchasing process

Before launching the new platform, you need to go through the full customer journey, from entering the website to placing an order.

Tests should include:

• search,
• categories,
• product pages,
• cart,
• checkout,
• payments,
• delivery methods,
• transactional emails,
• invoices,
• order statuses,
• mobile experience.

Step 10: Switch to the new store

The final switch should be planned for a period of lower sales traffic. Before switching, it is worth creating an up-to-date pre-migration backup and preparing the team to monitor the store after launch.

After changing DNS settings, which point the domain to the new server, the store should be monitored for the first 24–72 hours for errors, slow loading, and integration issues.

Step 11: Monitor the store after launch

Launching the new platform does not mean the project is finished. After go-live, you need to monitor:

• orders,
• payments,
• integrations,
• 404 errors,
• indexation,
• loading speed,
• user behavior,
• customer support requests.

The first few days after migration are critical. The faster you react to issues, the lower the risk of losses.

Summary

Preparing your online store for migration is a stage you should not shorten or skip. A detailed pre-migration eCommerce analysis, a properly tested backup, and verified PrestaShop technical requirements directly affect the safety of the entire project.

Store migration is not only about moving products and orders. It is also an opportunity to clean up data, improve UX, protect SEO, optimize integrations, and prepare the store for further sales growth.

Companies that approach migration methodically are more likely to complete the project within the planned time and budget, and launch the new store without unnecessary downtime.

If you are planning to move your store to PrestaShop, start with analysis. The better prepared your store is before migration, the greater the chance that the new platform will not only replace the old one, but actually improve your entire eCommerce operation.

Have questions about migration? Contact us. We will be happy to review your situation and suggest the best place to start.